Series

Connect With Us

Americans Elect sheds staff, delays voting till May

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

04/09/2012 03:10 PM EDT

The group Americans Elect, which is making a push to get ballot access for a third-party presidential candidate in all 50 states, has pushed back when voting was expected to start in its online convention to pick a standard-bearer, the group's head acknowledged to POLITICO.

The group also has seen some staff departures, although sources insisted it wasn't layoffs, and was simply the natural cycle of a campaign structure.

"We're running an organization here, and there are people who are here with us, and for whatever reason everybody hasn't made it to the end," Americans Elect CEO Khalil Byrd said, refusing to discuss any departures - and whether people had been replaced after leaving, or if their jobs had been eliminated.

"We're focused right now 100 percent on holding our convention," he said. He confirmed that the "board and the delegates made the decision that, given the pace...of the Republican primary" to delay voting from beginning this month to May, adding that a number of candidates are weighing a run.

Yet at least so far, the group has not had huge success in recruiting a major name, or a self-funder who can take the ballot line and make a major move with it. Byrd said they are "fully funded" for their ballot access push, which is being made with private donations that, since the group is a 501 c 4, don't have to be reported publicly.

As Ben Smith reported a few weeks ago, AE recently changed its by-laws so that the group will be reimbursing its major funder, Peter Ackerman, with the new money it raises. The problem is that the reimbursement gives little incentive for any new donors to chip in.